Tuesday, May 1, 2012
General Biology Seminar
Evolution of RNA viruses in changing environments
Paul Turner, Professor and Chair, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
Paul Turner received his Ph.D. in 1995 from the Center for Microbial Ecology, at Michigan State University, and did postdoctoral work at University of Maryland, National Institutes of Health, and University of Valencia, Spain. In 2001, Turner joined Yale University, where he is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Turners work involves the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, often using experimental evolution in the lab as a tool to examine how viruses adapt to environmental challenges, such as novel temperatures or host species. These studies use an inter-disciplinary approach, employing techniques from microbiology, population genetics, genomics, molecular biology and mathematical modeling.